The 7 Judgments People Make When They First Meet You

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By Caithlin Pena

Have you ever wondered what someone's first impression of you is? Do you look like someone they can trust, or do you appear like an obnoxious individual before you even open your mouth? Do your clothes give a positive or negative impression?

It's superficial to judge someone based solely on looks, but unfortunately, it's human nature. Even though we as a society are slowly breaking away from that, first impressions sometimes just stick, even if they stray from the far truth of who another person is.

Business Insider recently produced this video that summarizes 7 first impressions people perceive after meeting someone new:

1. Your trustworthiness. In a study, participants were given 100 milliseconds to rate someone's trustworthiness based on their face. Their ratings were the same as those who were given an unlimited time for the same task.

2. Your economic status. Wearing brand name clothing apparently implies that someone is rich, as opposed to someone who doesn't.

3. Your sexual orientation. A study found that people read into men's sexual orientation within 1/20th of a second after meeting them. According to Business Insider, that's also the minimum amount of time it takes to recognize a face.

4. Your intellect. Researchers found that those who make eye-contact while speaking to another person are perceived to be smart, since the act is correlated to higher-perceived intelligence. Wearing glasses gives the same impression.

5. Your promiscuity. A study in Britain found that women with visible tattoos are perceived to be promiscuous, as opposed to women who don't.

6. Your dominant nature. Bald men are apparently seen as more dominant than men who have hair.

7. Your success. Participants in a study were given 5 seconds to look at and rate the success of men in two sets of photos. In one set was men in tailored suits, and the other was men in non-tailored suits. The men in the tailored suits were rated to be much more successful.

So what does this mean?

Well, it can mean two things: One, people seem to have psychic abilities that determine who you are as a person, before they get to know you. Or, two, people are way too judgmental of someone they've never met before, and should probably spend time with you first before making assumptions.